Flannel Friday Series - Felts3Ways! Ducks!

Today was a big day!   Library Village had the fantastic opportunity to present at this year's Ohio Library Council's Convention and Expo.  We created a poster session on how to re-consider felts and bring them back into story time.  We explained various techniques on making felt sets, and showed how to use them in baby, toddler, and preschool story times.  I'll let Kristen blog about the OLC Convention, and of value of felt sets to young children (which is very rich!), but suffice it to say that all three of us are strong advocates for the use of different mediums in story time.  Felt is our favorite medium!

One of the main ideas we presented is how to save time and money by creating ONE felt set that can be used in various ways for different age groups.  We found in our department that we were creating many sets with only one use each.  We all enjoy felting, but this just was not efficient.  With just a small amount of planning our sets became far more versatile, and they still cost far less than store bought sets!  

Just like Iron Chef, this Story Time Ninja (see Storytime Underground for more information about Story time Ninjas) would like to present the first in my series called "Felts 3 Ways."  Today's edition: Ducks!!


Here the the entire set.

Some of the images were inspired by a kit for purchase on Cambridge Educational Toys http://www.cambridgeeducationaltoys.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=173_64_79
In addition, we have created similar sets for our story times before!  See Kristen's Where's Duck felt set post for more on her baby set!  Here is the link to my original Ugly Duckling set for Preschool which is much larger and different from the set here.
Want even more ducks?  We have SEVEN DUCK POSTS for you to see!

NOW, what can you do with this amazing set?

For Babies, you can use these pieces to create an activity to demonstrate for the caregivers called "Where's the Baby Duck?"  Mama calls 'Quack Quack' looking for her baby!  Is he behind the fence?  No?  Is he in the pond?  There's the baby duck!

For Toddlers, what is more fun that the 5 Little Ducks Song?

5 little ducks went out one day
over the hill and far away.
Mama duck said 'quack, quack, quack, quack'
But only 4 little ducks came back.
4 little ducks.....(until you get to no ducks left and then...)

One Mama Duck went out one day,
over the hill and far away
Mama duck said 'quack, quack, quack, quack'
And all 5 of her little ducks came back!

And for Preschool and Early Elementary, here is the Ugly Duckling story.  While the original tale can be embellished and extended with other forest animals, I created only enough felts for a preschool-length story time.  I imagine you could add any other creatures in the original to make it longer for school age story telling.  You could even use the pond, log, and tall grass as more scenery for this story.  Remember the ugly duckling hides himself away in the tall grass by the pond until one day he sees the swans soaring overhead and wishes he was as beautiful as they are.

As an added bonus, I have templates for you.  We created these templates as a handout for the OLC so I thought I would add them here for those of you who couldn't make it this year.

***Please remember that if you use these templates or re-blog about them, credit the original author or get permission for anything but private use. None of the images on the first page are mine to sell.  The second page is just hand drawn shapes and you are free to use those.

And with that, you have "Felts 3 Ways."  I hope you enjoy this series and stay tuned for more!


Special thanks to Kathryn at Fun With Friends at Storytime for hosting this week's Flannel Friday.  If you would like to learn more about Flannel Friday and how you can participate, Click HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flannel Friday - Duck! Rabbit!

To go along with my Duck Story Time (Click HERE for that), and my Ugly Duckling Flannel Friday set (Click HERE for that), here is my Flannel Friday submission to go with the book Duck! Rabbit!!  Not exactly creative, but definitely easy and handy for multiple ages.

I was a little worried how this set would fly in my story time.  I wasn't sure the 3-6 year old set would appreciate how this drawing could be seen two ways.  Well, I am sure some of the younger ones didn't quite understand, but most of the group really did get it and were fascinated by it!

Is it a duck?  Or is it a Rabbit?  Let's vote!
I hear duck sounds!  What does a duck say?
Wait - I think I hear Rabbit sounds!  What does a Rabbit say?  Hmmm.  How about 'sniff sniff'?

Well look at that!  The duck is having a piece of bread!  No wait.  The rabbit is eating a carrot!

Now I see a duck in a swamp!  Hmm or is it a rabbit in the tall grass?

The duck is getting a cool drink in the pond.....or is it a rabbit cooling his ears in the stream?

Now I am SURE I see a duck!

Now I am certain I see a rabbit!

Then I showed the last page of the book with the anteater and brontosaurus and said "hmm, I guess we could do this all day!  I better stop now."

Some of the kids really saw one or the other more.  Quite frankly, I see the rabbit more than the duck, but the book really is fascinating and the moms were really into this book too.  It is just fun and something completely different.  I am sure I could use this book for school visits and outreach too.  I have a Duck! Rabbit! poster I used during school visits and there was always ONE student who pointed out the poster saying "HEY - I get it!!!" so I bet the flannel set would work very well with them.  Very fun!

Thanks to my friends Lindsey and Dana at JBrary for hosting this week. Please check out their wonderful blog HERE.   If you would like more information on Flannel Friday and how you can participate, click HERE!
Thanks for stopping by!

Preschool Story Time - Duck, Duck, Swan!

One thing I have learned is that everyone does story time their own way.  If you can take ideas from our page, we are thrilled to keep blogging our story times.  Someone else might look and say "meh, not for me" and that is cool too.  There isn't a right or a wrong way to do a story time, as long as you love what you are doing.  The kids will see someone who isn't genuine a mile away, so really just go for it and shine on.
Duck story time is always great - because there are so many resources.  Did you know you could really do an entire story time on ducks wearing socks?  True story!  I mixed it up a little and brought in different duck books, but it really was a difficult choice.  Here we go!

Duck is such a great cook, but he wants to create his OWN recipe.  With a dash of mad-cap humor, this soup-opera is sure to please.

Emily is so serious!  What happens when she meets a duck who has a clear answer for every one of his little quirks?  The kids really thought this was silly and fun.

One of the easiest felt sets I created EVER.  You might get only one use with your preschool crowd, but this one can be used with a wider range of kids.  I think I will get use of this with school visits up to second grade.





After HALFTIME, we kept the party going with a sing-along.  This week I feverishly plucked out the 5 Little Ducks song (traditional) the night before.  I was nervous because there was so little practice time, but I had the moms all help me out and it turned out great!



5 little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away.
Mother duck said, "quack, quack, quack, quack!"
But only 4 little ducks came back....

Continue with 4, 3, 2, 1 until
Sad mama duck went out one day, over the hill and far away.
Sad mama said, "quack, quack, quack, quack!"
And all the 5 little ducks came back!

Time for my second flannel story of the day!  Using some of the artwork in this book, I created my version of The Ugly Duckling!  Click HERE to see the full length Flannel Friday post on this set, complete with ALL of the pieces I created for this story.

There is no one way to tell this tale, so you can learn the basics and tell it any way you would like.  My story timers love the felt sets the best, so I like to make sure I have a new set every week.  I just enjoy making them because I know how much the kids appreciate them.

Well, we had a little time left, so I pulled out this interactive book.  Duck dares the kids not to tickle him, but of COURSE you have to!  I took it slowly and made sure everyone had a chance to tickle the duck on every page.  Little meat to the story, but lots of fun.

Today's craft was a duck pond scene!

One of my secrets is owning a circle punch.  I have been able to create so many crafts using my 1 inch and 2 inch punches.  The kids used a ripping technique to create the pond and grass, and created the scene any way they wanted.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flannel Friday - The Ugly Duckling

I have seen this story written in so many ways.  When I finally decided to create a flannel set, I chose Braun's version of the story.   I did not flannelize all of the characters, however.  Also, due to time constraints and felt on hand, both of my swans are white.  I wanted to make a black swan, but black is also a difficult color to work with in felt because puffy paint doesn't show very well on black.  So there it is.

To paraphrase:  Mother duck was tending to her nest of three eggs when she left for a moment.  A larger egg floated along the stream and landed next to her nest.  Hmm were'nt there three eggs?  No matter, she thought, I will love this one just the same.

Soon the three eggs hatched but the larger one didn't.  No matter, thought mother duck, I will wait for my baby to arrive.  Finally the new baby emerged but it looked very different.  The ducklings were all so mean, telling the new baby that it was ugly.  No matter, said mother duck, You are beautiful to me and I love you just the same. 

The duckings grew, but the gray one always stuck out and was much larger than his siblings.  Other animals teased and taunted the ugly duckling and the baby ducklings joined right in.  Stop that! said Mother Duck, he is MY baby.  He is not ugly.  I love him just the same as the others.

The ugly duckling ran away, and soon he was grown.  He sat by the pond watching birds fly in the sky.  How I wish I could look as beautiful as they are!  But I am just an ugly duckling!

One of the birds in the sky landed next to the ugly duckling.  "Would you like to fly with us?"  "WHAT? I am so ugly!  Why would you want ME to fly with you?"  The other bird said "you are not ugly!  You are a beautiful swan - just like the rest of us!  Look in the pond at your reflection!"  The ugly duckling looked into the pond.  "I am a beautiful swan!  I am!"

The two swans flew away together and joined the rest of the swans, flying high in the sky.  The ugly duckling wasn't an ugly duckling at all!  He was a beautiful swan soaring high with other swans.  And they lived happily ever after!

If I had the time, I might have felted more pieces, but this version is just lovely too.  It was one of my favorites as a child, so fitting that I felt the set.  I hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks to Kathryn from Fun With Friends at Story Time  for hosting this week!  Please stop by the Flannel Friday website to learn more about Flannel Friday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Story Time - Ducks!

So sorry for the long hiatus from Baby Story Time! I've been feeling a little bit "blah" about my story times lately - do you ever get that way?  I must have had the winter blues, but I'm trying my best to snap out of it!  In fact, a few weeks ago I tried a spring-y theme to cheer us all up - Ducks!

OPENING SONG: "The Hello Song" *

GREETING SONG: "Hello" (Name Song) *

WAKE-UP RHYME: "Roly-Poly" (from Linda Ernst's Baby Rhyming Time)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, up, up, up
     (roll arms, arms reach up)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, down, down, down
     (roll arms, arms reach down)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, out, out, out
     (roll arms, arms reach out)
Roly-poly, roly-poly, in, in, in!
     (roll arms, bring arms together)

1st BOOK: Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck by Lisa Westberg Peters

This was a new one for me, and I really liked reading it! We were thinking Spring, for sure!

GUESSING GAME: "Where's Duck?"

Check out my Flannel Friday post about this simple little activity. It went really well!

COUNTING SONG: "Mama Duck" (from Peter Allard's cd "Sing It!, Say It!, Stamp It!, Sway It! Vol. 3)
This song is so much fun to do with babies.  Give your baby a bounce on every "Quack!" I always just sing this song so that I can control the speed and give directions between each verse.

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one bounce)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! (one bounce)
Here comes the Mama duck and 1 little duckling - Quack! (one bounce)

Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)
Here comes the Mama duck - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)
Here comes the Mama duck and 2 little ducklings - Quack! Quack! (two bounces)

Keep going up to five bounces - be ready for lots of giggles!

2nd BOOK: Five Little Ducks by Ivan Bates

Sing this one!

ACTION SONG: "Old MacDonald" (traditional)

I busted out our big-mouth puppets for this fun song! You can get them here.





We don't always use the same animals every time we sing this song.  This week we did cow, dog, pig, and ended with our duck.

RHYTHM TIME: SHAKERS!

"Six Little Ducks" (from Bob McGrath's cd "Sing Along with Bob #1)

We shook our shakers to this lively duck song with lots of quacking!

"Shake Your Shaker" (To the tune of "Old MacDonald")

1) Shake your shaker in the air, shake it in the air.

   With a shake-shake here and a shake-shake there,
   Here a shake, there a shake, everywhere a shake-shake.
   Shake your shaker in the air, shake it in the air.

2) Shake your shaker way down low, shake it way down low...

    With a shake-shake here and a shake-shake there,

    Here a shake, there a shake, everywhere a shake-shake.
    Shake your shaker way down low, shake it way down low...

3rd BOOK: Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry

We didn't get to this book with my "Wonderful Ones" group - they were just too wiggly that day! The little babies enjoyed it though!

CLOSING SONG: "If You're Happy and You Know It" *

GOODBYE SONG: "Babies, Bye-Bye" *

CLOSING RHYME: "Thank You" *



*Check out my Baby Story Time page for the words to all of my weekly songs and rhymes.

We had a great time quacking our way towards Spring with ducks this week! And our actual Spring-themed story time is coming soon!

Want to see how Miss Kristie used Duckie's Rainbow with Toddlers? Click here.

Flannel Friday - Where's Duck?

If you're starting to plan your spring story times and you work with babies or toddlers, you might consider a simple guessing game.  Today our babies looked for Duck - where could she be?

This was very simple and quick to make, and could be used for a lot of different themes.

Is Duck hiding behind the fence?

 

Nope! Is Duck hiding behind the log?

 

No! Is Duck hiding in the grass?

 

Yes! There she is! Quack quack!

(note: I borrowed Duck from another storytelling set - you can get her here.)

 

Wishing for Spring! Happy Flannel Friday!

 

Thanks to Storytime ABC's for hosting this week!  Learn more about Flannel Friday here.



Flannel Friday - Socks!

I took over PJ Story Time while Miss Carol was on vacation this week, and decided we needed to read some books about warm, fuzzy socks!

This felt set is for a matching game for toddlers and preschoolers.  I gave every child one sock, and they had to bring it up to the board and find its match.  Thank goodness I had exactly 8 children!

I just used Google images to find an easy sock outline, and the decorating was easy, using felt and puffy paint.  The cloud socks are for Miss Kristie, and I think Miss Sue would enjoy the fuzzy gold ones :)  My personal favorites are the dinosaurs!

If you wanted to make a ton of them for a large group, this would be an easy task to give to a crafty volunteer!

Bonus:

I shamelessly stole this from Storytime with Miss Tara and Friends - it was too cute to pass up!  Here's my take on Ducks Don't Wear Socks by John Nedwidek:

Baby Story Time - Birds!

Greetings from Baby Story Time! Last week our theme was "Birds," which included ducks, hens, owls and more!

Books we read:

Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry

I LOVE this book for babies and toddlers!  It's so bright and colorful.  By the end of the book, the borders of the pages have formed a rainbow, so you can have everyone say the names of the colors aloud.  Someone in our department made a simple rainbow felt set to go with this book, but I didn't use it today.

1, 2, Buckle My Shoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines

What does this nursery rhyme have to do with birds, you ask?  Why, a big, fat hen, of course!  Hines' version is so visually interesting, made with fabric and buttons instead of illustrations, and is a really nice, simple counting book.

 



In My Nest by Sara Gillingham

This series of board books all have a little finger puppet in the middle, which you can wiggle as you read.  These are nice books to end a baby story time with because they are very short and sweet.

Activities:

After our "hello" song and name song, we always start with a "Wake-up Rhyme," which may or may not have anything to do with the theme, but gets the babies bouncing and awake!  Today we did a familiar one, "Way up high in the apple tree."  I guess I was thinking birds live in trees, right?

Apple Tree (adapted from Linda Ernst's book, Baby Rhyming Time)
Way up high in the apple tree,              
     (raise baby's arms over head)
Two little apples did I see.                    
     (hold up two fingers)
So I shook that tree as hard as I could,  
     (jiggle baby!)
And d-o-w-n came the apples,              
     (lower baby between your legs to the ground)
Mmm! They were good!                       
     (rub baby's tummy and hug)

After reading Duckie's Rainbow, we did a fun guessing game that I totally stole from Mel's Desk.  With a few simple felt eggs, we "guessed" which egg the baby duckling was in, saying, "Baby duckling, are you in the --- egg?"  I borrowed a little felt duck from a different felt set, but made my own eggs.  This was fun and easy, and a nice little break from your typical fingerplays or rhymes.

Next we sang a fun song called "Mama Duck" from the Peter Allard's cd Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Vol. 3.  Rather than play the cd, I often just sing songs myself.  That way if the song is too fast or too long, I can control the pace and the length.  Anyway, we bounced (on parents' laps) every time we said "quack."

Mama Duck
Here comes the Mama duck - quack!
Here comes the Mama duck - quack!
Here comes the Mama duck and one little duckling - quack!

Here comes the Mama duck - quack quack!
Here comes the Mama duck - quack quack!
Here comes the Mama duck and two little ducklings - quack quack!

Keep going up to five - five fast bounces is really fun to do and gets a lot of giggles from the babies!

After reading 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe, we said the nursery rhyme again, acting out the actions.  On "nine, ten, a big, fat hen," I got out our beautiful hen puppet!  Ok, maybe it's a rooster.  Either way, we clucked around the circle so each baby could touch it.  This is one of my favorite puppets to use because it always gets lots of "oohs" and "aahs."

Next we did a quick counting rhyme, which I also borrowed from Mel's Desk.  I liked that this was repetitive, so I didn't have to try to remember a different rhyme for each verse!  I used a felt set of owls that I made several years ago.

Five Little Owls
Five little owls sitting in a tree,
One flew away! How many do you see?
One, two, three, four.

Four little owls sitting in a tree...

If I do several rhymes in a row, then I throw in a song to get everyone's attention back on track.  This time we sang "Open, Shut Them," a classic story time song!

Open, Shut Them
Open, shut them, open, shut them,                        
     (open and shut baby's arms)
Give them both a clap, clap, clap.                          
     (clap hands)
Open, shut them, open, shut them,                         
     (open and shut baby's arms)
Put them in your lap, lap, lap.                                
     (pat your lap)
Walk them, walk them, walk them, walk them      
     (walk your fingers up baby's arm)
Right up to your chinny, chin, chin.                       
     (tap baby's chin)
Circle around your little mouth, but...                    
     (circle your finger around baby's mouth)
Do not let them in!                                                  
     (tickle!!)

After our last book, In My Nest, we passed out shakers and shook to "Shake My Sillies Out" from Raffi's cd More Singable Songs.  I really like this version because it is quick - only about one minute long.  After that, we shook our shakers to our various body parts - heads, toes, tummies, etc.

We usually end with "If You're Happy and You Know It," but in honor of our "birds" theme, I played "Kookaburra" on my guitar.  I even added a verse about Kookaburra visiting story time!  After that I sang my "goodbye" song, we did our "thank you" rhyme, and it was time to play!

How it went:

This was a little bit of an ambitious story time, but it went really well!  I had about 15 babies with their parents, and several new faces this week.  While two or three activities between every book might seem like a lot, each book was short, as was each activity, so we really kept the ball rolling and kept the babies' attention.  I have found that quick transitions are super important because babies get restless! See you next week!